"You're saying: 'Hey, it's Columbus. This is where I live,' " said Gabriel Roth, who created the
"C-Bus" T-shirt in late 2005 as a nod to the city's shortened nickname.

"It's like when people wear a sports-team shirt -- another way to represent yourself."

Roth, 26, has sold more than 5,000 "C-Bus" shirts through the part-time venture Columbus Urban
Threads. He signed a deal last week to start selling the shirts at Port Columbus gift shops, where
they'll begin appearing in a few weeks.

Fans of the shirts like them not just as clothing but also as a medium -- and a message.

"It's the quintessential social-media tool," said Daniel Fox, 28, owner of Skreened, a Columbus
T-shirt boutique and Web site. "You can identify somebody, get a joke."

Skreened.com and its retail store, which opened last month in the Clintonville neighborhood,
carry a line of comical shirts dubbed Columbus Couture ($15.99 each) that highlight local figures
such as Mayor Michael B. Coleman (in gangsta-rap garb) and lawyer Kevin Kurgis (pointing
fiercely).

Fox also allows shoppers to create and share their own designs, embossed onto T's at the store.
His orders from California recently exceeded those from Ohio.

Some analysts see potential.

Threadless, an 8-year-old Chicago T-shirt business that relies on submitted designs, reported
$17 million in sales last year, noted James Dion, president of Chicago retail consultant
Dionco.

Other startups, including the T-Shirt Deli (also of Chicago) and Neighborhoodies (of New York)
capitalize on consumers' desire to wear their own digital art and inside jokes.

Limited quantities and insider designs enhance the appeal.

"It's a little more personal," said Alison Bartlett, 29, of Grandview Heights, who has sold
about 500 of her "Ohio Mixtape" shirts through her apparel line, Alison Rose.

"You feel like there's more of a story behind it,"

After making a few shirts on a whim last summer, Bartlett and longtime friend Nick Nocera were
shocked when their simple design -- a cassette tape squeezed inside Ohio's border -- sold out its
first run in less than a day at a ComFest booth in Goodale Park.

Now the duo sells the designs at several Columbus stores and online for $20 at
www.alisonrose.com, where Web orders have been received
from New York and Los Angeles.

Bartlett's tape designs, along with Roth's C-Bus shirts and a collection of Ohio T's made by the
Chop Chop Gallery in Olde Towne East are also stocked in the gift shop of the Wexner Center for the
Arts, 1871 N. High St.

The shirts are among the store's best-selling items, said general manager and buyer Matt
Reber.

"It's the hipster's version of wearing a Buckeyes shirt," he said. "They're a nice statement of
place."

That much is clear to Ryan Vesler, founder of Homage Clothing.

His T-shirt line features vintage-inspired Ohio State University logos that the East Side native
ships across the country by the thousands.

He also revived the Surf Ohio design -- the iconic 1978 T-shirt that quickly became a sensation
and was worn by celebrities such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Beach Boys.